Town chief won't try to 'copy and paste' his Gunners style at Kenilworth Road

New Town boss Jack Wilshere has insisted he won’t try to ‘copy and paste’ the kind of footballing methods and principles he was accustomed to after spending almost two decades at Arsenal when taking his first steps into senior management with the Hatters.

Having initially starting out at Luton’s Centre of Excellence, the midfielder was quickly snapped up by the Gunners as a nine-year-old, meaning the way of life in north London was all Wilshere knew for the next 17 years, going on to play solely under Arsene Wenger when breaking into the Arsenal first team, winning two FA Cups in that time.

Having also been awarded 34 international caps for England when the Three Lions were led by Fabio Capello and Roy Hodgson, then asked if he would try and replicate what he has learned during his time at the Emirates especially when starting out life as a number one for the first time at Kenilworth Road, Wilshere, who also coached the Arsenal U18s as well, said: “I don’t think you can copy and paste that’s for sure as a manager, that’s in terms of on the pitch but also in terms of behaviour and how you act.

"You are who you are as a coach, that’s important and of course not just the last three years, but I spent my life in the academy at Arsenal as well, so I have a way of thinking about the game. Of course I like the ball and I want to have control of the game, but there’s things that you have to do before you can get to that. I’ve had coaches over the years saying you have to earn the right and this is probably an old saying in football but that’s still there. You have to earn the right to get the ball, you have to earn the right for the fans to cheer you, and that's something we’ll be looking to do from the start.”

Although he will clearly want to be his own man with the Hatters, Wilshere did concede that having had the career in the game he has, playing at such an elite level and working under some top, top managers, plus being on the coaching staff with Norwich City, eventually taking two matches in caretaker charge, then those experiences will have helped shape his own beliefs. He continued: “There’s many things that I learnt there (Carrow Road) that will help me massively.

"I said to Gary (Sweet, Luton CEO) and everyone from the start of this, I was clear with my journey and what I wanted and how I wanted it to feel and look, but if I didn’t have that Norwich experience I wouldn’t be sat here, I truly believe that. I learned so much in the (Arsenal) academy, I learned how I see the game and little details around that, but then actually when you step into the real life which we’re in now, you have different things thrown at you and you have to take them in, and learn.

"At times it was difficult, there were some tough moments through the second half of last season, but when you’re in that and you’re feeling it and selfishly I wasn’t the head coach so I could step back a little bit and look at him (Johannes Hoff Thorup) and how he managed those situations. I learned so much and some of that stuff will be coming here for sure.”

In fact, it was when Wilshere went to the Brache when Nathan Jones was in charge to take part in pre-season training and see if he could make a playing return with the Hatters that lit the torch for his future step into management, as although the midfielder went on to play for AFC Bournemouth and Danish side AGF, he eventually hung up his boots around 12 months later, unable to get to the place he wanted to produce the kind of football he was capable of.

Speaking about the realisation that the dug-out was where he wanted to end up, as he quickly began working for Arsenal’s U18s, leading the teenage Gunners to an FA Youth Cup Final, now getting the chance to be the front man by himself, albeit assisted by the experienced Chris Powell, is something that has reignited his passion once more. Wilshere said: “It’s interesting as when I was at Luton training, I wanted to go and I felt like I could do it, but probably my body couldn’t and that’s a tough place to be as a player.

"I wanted to dive into something straight away and I found coaching and I found a real passion for it, a real hunger for it. It’s like the more you’re in it, the more you want to do better, you want to find new things. I said you can’t copy and paste but you can definitely take inspiration from other coaches and try and make it your own, and it’s nice to have that feeling, that hunger back, to start over again. I’m definitely ambitious, I will try and do everything I can to be successful.”

With Wilshere taking his first training session on Monday, he won’t have long to try and get his footballing methods across to Town’s desperately low on confidence players ahead of their home game against Mansfield Town this weekend. The 33-year-old knows it will take time for his ideology to fully sink in, but hopes the first shoots are noticeable on Saturday, as he added: “I have an idea of in possession, out of possession and these are things that we’ll talk about with the players and the coaches. We’ll try and implement them. I’m very aware of where we’re at, how the group probably feel at the moment.

"As Gary said, in the Premier League and then falling down, that can be tough, so before anything I think we need to see a team that is fighting, that can connect with the fans, that can get the fans on our side, that we can use that energy at home. We can be aggressive, on the front foot and we have to build that. We have to build confidence, we have to build belief and then we can start to look at it and you might start to see a bit more of a Jack Wilshere team, but at the start, I’m convinced that’s the way we move forward.”